Audio 3:34
Food flows as floods fade

Caitlyn GribbinUpdated
Wed Feb 06 13:28:00 EST 2013

Some rural towns in Queensland's flood zone have now gone two weeks without a delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables. Supermarket shelves in regions west of Bundaberg are bare, and locals are becoming increasingly desperate for fresh produce. But residents of one country town received a treat last night.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: The residents of some of the towns in Queensland's flood zone have now gone for two weeks without a delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Supermarket shelves in regions west of Bundaberg are bare and locals are getting desperate.

But Caitlyn Gribbin reports that some were treated to a special dinner last night.

(Sound of food being prepared)

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: It should be an average night at the Eidsvold Motel - roast and three veg for dinner.

But this meal is somewhat of a novelty - it's the first time food's been served here since the record flooding in the Bundaberg district.

DIANNE WILSON: Well, we haven't had any fresh produce for over a week now, or is ten days? Two weeks! Yep, there you go.

ANDREW ROTH: Yeah, no it's been two weeks. Our last supply came in Wednesday two weeks ago. We were totally cut off, Eidsvold, on every side of us.

And, yeah we were a little island in the middle of all the devastation.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Does that mean that really it's pretty difficult to run a cafe during this time?

ANDREW ROTH: Oh, extremely. We've been closed now, because we basically ran out of stock and we've been closed for a week, seven days, but we've had plenty of other things to keep us occupied.

DIANNE WILSON: Dead cattle to bury and fences to rebuild.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: What reactions have you had when you said we've managed to get a bit of food together and we can put on dinner tonight?

DIANNE WILSON: They were really supportive... well no-one had food, because everything had gone rotten and everyone had taken it to the dump, as we had from a lot of our food.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: And Tara Williams, you've actually just ducked out from the main dining area at the moment, everyone hooking in there? Are they having a good time now that there's some food in town?

TARA WILSON: Yeah they are, they're dipping right into it. The regulars, Vickie and Graham, and they're going "Oh, how beautiful it is" and "it's just a wonderful meal".

(Sound of groceries being scanned in a supermarket)

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: This supermarket in Eidsvold is bustling. Local graziers and residents are finally able to buy fresh milk and bread.

The fruit and vegetable department is looking healthier thanks to the delivery.

It's an improvement on the situation in the neighbouring town, where the only vegetables I could buy were wilted snow peas, celery sticks or choko.

Peter Webster runs the supermarket and attached hardware store.

He says the flooding has presented many challenges for fruit and vegetable supply.

PETER WEBSTER: We were running very, very low and we've just had supplies in today. Yeah, if it had gone on for too long, we would have been in trouble.

Rosemary that works for me, she certainly limited people to one bottle of milk and one loaf of bread. Of course, we didn't have any fresh milk, it was all long life milk, but we were fortunate to have that.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: But the local mayor Don Waugh says country towns are unique because they're always willing to share supplies.

DON WAUGH: Because this flood really came out of the blue, I mean we knew the cyclone was coming down, but to know the extent of it, it was difficult at that stage. But I'd say it extended to the water supplies. We ran very short in Eidsvold. We were able to supply water from Monto down to Eidsvold to keep the supply up.

And I think when Eidsvold finally got onto track, we supplied some down to Mundubbera.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: So you said there, a bit of sharing was required between some towns. I was even at the pub in Gayndah and I overheard a conversation from the Mundubbera publican who had called in asking if there was any spare beer, so that's pretty important too?